The little details which count at sea...

[JakeTheSnake]

I agree 100% on adding rocks and stuff that give character to the ocean, but that you can't land at. I'd also love to see some islands that you could sail into like in the Black Pearl battle. There should be an island where you have to sail into a giant cave and then you can land and fight guys both on shore and on your ship.

I don't think the caribbean is getting smaller, I think the ships are getting faster, which makes it seem like everything is closer together. Tortuga looks the same distance away when I set sail from Port Royal as it always has, it just takes less time to get there.
The problem I have with making the islands farther apart is that it will take forever to get from island to island. Before you can teleport, it could take an hour just to do a quest going from Port Royal to Tortuga and back. I don't really want to spend my game time watching an island slowly get bigger as I get closer just so I can turn in some little quest. I'd rather be doing something fun. I do, however, think that the non-major islands should be a long way away. Stuff like Perdida, Tormenta, Outcast, etc. Those ones should be far away, but I doubt they'd change their locations now.